STARTUP STAGE: The Host Co. adds hotel-style amenities to rentals

The Host Co.

Founded in September 2020, the Host Co. enables hosts to create an online store to sell anything in their property, from snacks to phone chargers to artwork.

Guests can make purchases before or during their stay. Some items are stocked in the properties and others are delivered, with the Host Co. making a commission on each sale.

 

What is your 30-second pitch to investors?

We add the mini-bar, gift shop and concierge to your Airbnb. As a guest you can now buy anything in a rental from the snacks in the fridge to the art on the walls - and even pre-order items before your arrival.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

We help hosts create custom stores to sell anything in their rental, plus services like “pre-stock my pantry” and connections to local artisan products that ship home. Our B2B2C marketplace software is:

• Safe: cashless transactions, security features on both sides
• Secure: four layers of theft prevention built in
• Seamless: Guests can purchase an item in 30 seconds, with no downloads. Hosts onboard in two minutes. 

My co-founder and I, who met as producers at HGTV, are both professional Airbnb hosts. So we first built this technology for ourselves. We understand both sides of the marketplace - we know that guests really, really want to buy things our of our rentals. And we know that, as hosts, we would like to curate a value-add experience for guests and make more from every booking. And really, who doesn’t want pre-stocked Advil and Gatorade for sale the night after a big wedding? 

The Host Co. is a community of 10,000 hosts across all of our channels. We are basically the Xerox of hosting, as one of the largest companies providing resources advice and technology for short-term rental hosts. Our services work for all short-term rental platforms, from Airbnb to Vrbo and even different types of rentals like swimming pools and office space. 

We built both our business model and technology around our users - hosts! We know that hosts won’t download anything, that they won’t work on a SaaS model because they are generally seasonal and that they want to be in control of what they stock and sell. 

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

• Strengths: Built for perfect product market fit. Tons of early buzz, a robust waiting list and amazing metrics from early users. Over 40% of guests purchase an item when they stay in an Airbnb with a Host Co. store. And over 90% of guests open the store. 
• Weaknesses: We have so many amazing features to add, and as a growing company we are figuring out how to get to them faster.
• Opportunities: global scale
• Threats: You’d think that Airbnb would be our biggest threat here, but we know that Airbnb is not currently focused on adding retail to rentals inside the company. We do know that they are looking to outside companies to solve this problem. And, while there is some other competition in this space, their technology is very different from the others. Our biggest threat currently is time - as we know other companies will enter this space. 

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

Short-term rentals simply don’t have the amenities guests need and crave. There’s no mini-bar, gift shop or concierge. Guests will choose to stay at a hotel over a short-term rental for these reasons. 

By adding retail and services to rentals everyone wins: guests, hosts, brands and delivery services.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

Our growing community of hosts are our evangelists! We’ve got also got an incredible marketing funnel for new hosts.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

We built this for ourselves first - we know the market and the need. It’s very funny, whenever we talk about the “problem” everyone gets it, right away. I mean, who hasn’t been in a vacation rental and wanted to buy something? Or wish they had something you forgot, like toothpaste or a phone charger? Or just desperately wished they had room service or a mid-week cleaning?

How and when will you make money?

As a marketplace we work on a commission model. Hosts keep 93% of sales.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team?

Prior to The Host Co. I, Annie Sloan, was a creative director with Facebook, and prior to that a creative director at Twitter. I have worked in the Bay Area tech space for many years and have helped build digital products for Google, Nike, Airbnb and more. My co-founder, Mikel, after working as a show runner in television, went on to found Times Eight Real Estate and a large Airbnb property management company. We are both Airbnb hosts, so coming together to build a host-focused technology felt intuitive. 

How have you addressed diversity and inclusion within your business?

We are a female- and LGBTQ-founded team committed to diverse hiring practices all the way to the executive level. We feel that you cannot address diversity and inclusion once - it is an ongoing commitment that must be built into the fabric of the business.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Time management. Wishing we could replicate ourselves!

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

We are the right technology at the right time. Airbnb just did its best quarter ever, and tens of thousands of new hosts are coming online every month. Our business and technology is built for hosts, by hosts, so we know the right way to serve our customers.

A year from now, what state do you think your startup will be in?

Hyper-growth! We’ll still be in the foxhole of startup life, but with our eyes on expanding globally. And we’ll have several more features implemented that help connect guests to even more services. Can’t wait!

What is your end-game? (Going public, acquisition, growing and staying private, etc.)

This information is private for now, but we have a number of options open, which is fantastic!